Percy Jackson: Spirits
by QAI521
Summary: Percy Jackson was prepared to die to defend Olympus, but the universe has different plans for him.
1. Prologue: Achilles

**Summary: Percy Jackson was prepared to sacrifice himself to save Olympus. Unfortunately for Percy, the universe has different plans for him.**

 **So, my first non-Worm related fic.**

 **Thanks to Commissar Carnifex and The Sleeping Knight for betaing.**

 **Enjoy!**

Prologue: Achilles

Percy stared down at Kro- no Luke, as he held Annabeth's knife in his hand weighing his options. The aura of death and danger had all but left Luke's form once he had managed to wrest control from Kronos, but Percy knew he was still dangerous. He had nearly killed them on multiple occasions before, and that was without the Curse of Achilles and Kronos to aid him.

"Give me the knife." Luke croaked out. "There's no time."

Percy would have been lying to himself if he wasn't the slightest bit tempted to try and use force, to find Luke's Achilles' Heel and make him and Kronos pay for all the suffering that they had caused, for all the friends that he had killed.

Beckendorf.

Selina.

Zoe.

Michael.

So many others.

But…he had never been one to enjoy another's suffering.

The line from the great prophecy echoed in his head, the piece of poetry that weighed down on his shoulders more than the sky had.

 _The Hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap._

Percy handed Luke the knife.

"Percy? Are you . . . um . . ." Grover started, looking more than a little nervous. Percy couldn't blame him. It _was_ crazy to hand someone who had just been your enemy mere moments ago another weapon, but he had already made his choice, and there was no turning back now.

Percy kept his grip on Riptide as Luke gripped the knife's handle and unlatched a section of his armor covering his arm. He brought the tip of the blade up under his arm in a spot that would have been extremely difficult to hit in the middle of a fight.

Just as the blade was about to pierce his skin Luke's eyes flashed gold and everything went to hell.

" _ **NO**_!" Kronos roared, howling with such force that if Percy hadn't managed to brace himself in time, he would have been sent flying back along with Annabeth and Grover. As it was he barely had time to bring Riptide up as Kronos swept out wildly with the knife, even as Backbiter flew back into his open hand.

Deflecting the first blow Percy swung up towards the weak point that Luke had revealed even as Kronos twisted his sickle around his back and drove it into his own Achilles Heel.

Percy gasped in pain as agony beyond anything that he had ever experienced before coursed through his veins. His skin felt as if he had been barbed with a thousand fishhooks, pulling him apart piece by piece. His blood felt like molten rock and his breath froze in his lungs. Everything around him seemed to spin as the dull roar of his heartbeat echoed through his ears like a death toll. He could feel his life slipping away as a faint trickle of blood ran down from his Achilles Heel.

But his pain was nothing compared to the anger he felt as Kronos' stolen mouth twisted into a sick grin, golden eyes glinting in delight at his suffering. Luke's face looked utterly inhuman, no warmth or compassion to be found, only a cold spite that drove every action. But the Titan's smug expression was cut short as Percy slammed his foot into the floor, shattering the ground beneath them. The Titan's eyes nearly bugged out of Luke's skull as Percy wrapped his hand around his wrist and pulled him down into the dark void alongside him.

Percy could barely keep track of what was happening as he was surrounded by an inky blackness so deep that it made Shadow Traveling seem like a well-lit path. All he knew he had to do was make sure that Kronos didn't make it out of this alive.

The Titan was howling cursed in ancient Greek that would have made Mr. D blush even as Percy fell upon him. There was no strategy or thought to his actions, only a mindless desperation. But despite that, Riptide hit its mark as it swung out towards the flailing Titan. It pierced the flesh of the Achille's Heel and Percy watched as Kronos' struggling redoubled even more.

"NO! YOU SHALL NOT DEFEAT ME HERE MORTAL! _I AM KRONOS,_ _ **I WILL DES**_ —

"Shut up!" Percy snarled as he reached out and wrenched Annabeth's knife from the Titans hands and slammed it down into his throat. Without the curse protecting him the blade sliced through the skin, ending the madman's rant.

Not the best comeback, but he was well beyond caring at this point.

He could feel the pain that he had managed to push aside with his anger grow more and more to the point where it was all that he could feel. It was as if his body was tearing itself up and dissipating into the endless void. Beneath him, Kronos continued to struggle and howl even with his severed vocal cords. His fists felt like hot irons against his skin but compared to the pain that he was already experiencing they were little more than irritants.

As the pain started to grow to such heights that Percy could barely focus his vision, he locked eyes with Kronos one last time. Instead of the sadistic arrogance or rage that he was used to seeing all he found was one thing in those golden orbs.

Fear.

After everything that he had been through, after all the pain and suffering he and his friends had endured the Titan was finally feeling what they had been experiencing by his hand for years. But he held no joy towards Kronos' fear, only satisfaction that his friends would be safe from his wrath and world would become the Titan's plaything. And after all his battles, there were only two words that Percy could bring himself to say through the blinding pain.

"You _lose_."

* * *

She knew he was coming, there was no doubt about that.

The world was heaving with every breath as the darkness threatened to suffocate everything. Dark energy hung in the sky like a rolling thunderstorm, just waiting to break at a moment's notice. Her host's home might as well have been soaked in solid shadow for all the good it did. The innate defenses that were supposed to keep her tribe safe were holding it off, but only barely. It was groaning under the strain, and it could snap at a moment's notice.

Even in her weakened state, she could feel the lights of humanity being squeezed as the darkness coiled around them all. Hatred was clouding their thoughts, greed distracting them from what was important.

 _"It's a shame the Southerners have abandoned all connection to the spirits."_

Raava might have appreciated Korra's uncle if he wasn't so steeped in darkness. His heart was a black pit that had long since given into Vaatu's honeyed words and whispered promises. What had once been a man was now nothing more than a tool to extend Vaatu's will. She tried to warn Korra, to alert her to the danger that the man represented, but every time that she pushed forwards the darkness lashed back, pushing her down and away from the Avatar's ear. The darkness slid over her with an inhuman malice, and Raava couldn't help but shiver. Despite having fought him for so long, she still found the Dark One's presence revolting.

But as much as she wanted to warn Korra against her uncle's words, the man had a point. This spiritual tradition of the Southern Water tribe had been developed for the purpose of pushing back Vaatu's power when he was at his most powerful. It was supposed to siphon off any energy that of his that slipped through the crack and cleanse the people of his corrupting influence. But instead, here they were, watching giving into to their desires to do what was fun instead of what was _important._

And this would only be the beginning.

If things continued as they way they were, then the world would rip itself apart under Vaatu's influence. The world almost already had under the banner of Amon. Raava couldn't even begin to fathom the disaster that would have unfolded if that madman hadn't been stopped, if he had continued to block peoples bending, then there would have been nothing to hold back the dark spirits that would serve as Vaatu's vanguard.

His army would wash over the world like a tsunami, and he would snuff out every light in existence with his power. Spirits and humans alike would be united in eternal agony as he turned his wrath upon both worlds in revenge for then thousand years of imprisonment.

A thousand lifetimes of progress ready to be washed away because of her failure.

 _How could I have been so blind?_

It had been her responsibility once to keep Vaatu in check, and it still was. Even bonding with Wan hadn't changed that, it had only changed how she accomplished it. Wan had been the one to support her in her goals to see Vaatu stopped in her darkest hour, and together they had.

They always had.

But ten thousand years was a long time, and knowledge was lost. The Avatar soon forgot what their true purpose was in keeping balance in the world. Not just to save lives, but to stave off Vaatu's corrupting influence, for even in his prison his power was vast and his reach seemingly inescapable. She should have taken notice when such knowledge had been lost from the cycle when Vaatu's name hadn't even been whispered in cold dread for a thousand years. When her own _existence_ turned into nothing more than a myth for children and forgotten even then.

She could have done so much to prevent this, but she hadn't too self-assured in her victory over Vaatu that she had ignored the warning signs. She that his prison would have kept him in check, and even with his influence there had been little that he could do.

She had been _so_ wrong.

It was only now when the darkness threatened to engulf the world that she could see what she had failed to notice before, and she couldn't even warn the Avatar of the impending doom. Growling in frustration, Raava slammed herself against the encircling darkness, pushing with everything that she had. She could feel it give way, bending under the power of her light, and there was almost a moment that she could feel it snapping…

…only to be pushed back down as another wave of power washed over Korra, stifling her ability to sense her urgency.

Raava, the great Spirit of Light, and she couldn't even talk to her own host.

At the height of her power within the Avatar, such a barrier wouldn't have even obstructed her, she would have torn it apart with nothing more than a thought.

But the last two centuries had not been kind to her, and Vaatu's influence was written all over it.

She had never been too concerned with Aang running from the Air Temple, the boy was only twelve after all, and he was far from the first Avatar that just wanted to escape their duties. After spending millennia inside their heads, she knew that not every human wanted to be the Avatar, but there was little that she could do to alleviate that burden. But allowing a child a chance to escape his fate for a few days at the most and allow himself some time to think, that was something that she could allow.

But then the storm struck…

 _Raava could feel Aang's fear as the sky screeched and thunder clapped. Lighting flashed across the sky while headwinds powerful enough to overwhelm even the strongest of airbenders buffeted his Bison's body. The child was afraid, fearful of what would happen if he continued on this path, but even more frightened of what would happen should he return to the temple._

 _Raava might have sent the boy some soothing thoughts if she wasn't afraid too._

 _She could feel the darkness of this storm the raging anger and active malice that permeated every drop of water. The lighting that flashed across the sky was too consistently close to striking Aang to be natural, the howling winds shifting with each adjustment that he made in order to keep him off balance. The sea churned with hatred, waves slipping up to grab the airbenders whole and bring him down into the murky depths. And behind it all, a cold_ burning _malice to see the Avatar dead._

 _This was no ordinary storm._

 _Raava felt the boy's fear reach a pitch as he was finally swatted down in the freezing ocean, struggling with all he had but still not having enough to escape its icy grip. So Raava did the only thing she could do and let her power flow through the boy's veins._

 _But even as his eyes glowed white, Raava could hear Vaatu's laughter echo through the storm like thunder._

 _I win._

Raava could only remember snippets of what happened after that. Keeping the Avatar State wasn't tasking under ordinary circumstances, but holding it constantly for a full century? That had certainly taken a lot out of her.

When they had finally emerged from what iceberg she had barely been able to bridge the gap between them to maintain the Avatar State, much less communicate with him. And with each passing day, there was nothing more that she wanted. Aang had seen the war and the devastation that it had caused, but he had never seen what she had. The spiritual devastation that had been wrought by Vaatu's agents had been well beyond anything that she could have dreamed of.

The airbenders – dead.

Tui – dead.

Wan Shi Tong – gone.

Anyone of those losses would have been debilitating to her fight against Vaatu, but all three at once?

Without the airbenders, there was no way to perform the rituals that kept the skies cleansed of Vaatu's influence. And if Aang had not survived long enough to have and teach his air bending child, the art would have had to have been rediscovered again, and there would have been no way to prepare the Avatar in time to stand against Vaatu.

The loss of such knowledge might not have been as problematic if Wan Shi Tong hadn't decided to leave the human realm. Raava had known that the Spirit of Knowledge had never been as interested in humans as the rest of the spirits, but how convenient was it that the very man who had sealed his opinion on humans was the very same that had tried to rid the world of the moon?

Tui's death was easily one of the greatest victories of Vaatu. Had Yue not taken the moon spirit's place in an act of selfless courage, nothing would have been able to stop the chaos that would have befallen the world. But as brave as she was, Yue didn't have the eons of experience that Tui had possessed in wielding her power, and as such, she wouldn't be as nearly as useful against Vaatu's power.

The Spirit of Chaos had been setting up this board for a while, and now all the pieces were starting to come together.

 _"I'm surprised the Avatar doesn't know about that. Apparently, you haven't been given all the information you need. I would be my honor to instruct you in the spiritual ways of the water tribe."_

 _Please, no,_ Raava begged, weakly straining against the darkness that cocooned her, hoping with everything that she had that Korra would hear her, that she wouldn't give into her uncle's promises. But her hopes were dashed with the next words to leave the girl's lips.

 _"I wouldn't mind about learning spirits. Air bending is getting pretty boring."_

 _No,_ Raava said weakly as she slumped down, the realization that she had failed so much that the _Avatar_ of all people could recognize the influence of a corrupting spirit, especially when that spirit was Vaatu. Her uncle should have been a blazing fire to her spiritual senses, but now she didn't even get an itch in the back of her skull warning her of how dangerous this man was.

 _I'm sorry Wan…I'm so sorry._

All that Raava could do now was _pray_ that something would happen to turn the tide back in her favor.

* * *

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	2. First Meetings

**Percy's adventure begins.**

 **Enjoy!**

First Meetings

The first thing that Percy became aware of was the pain.

It felt like he had been used as Cerberus' chew toy and then left to the tender mercies of the Furies for a few days or so. Another person might have taken that as a good sign of not being dead, but Percy was familiar enough with the Underworld that he knew that wasn't always the case. He knew all to well that Hades could be a vindictive god when he wanted to be. It wasn't hard to imagine his uncle deciding to torture him for all the times he had troubled him or to simply get back at Poseidon.

Wasn't family great like that?

Personally, he was tempted to just keep his eyes closed and lay down on the ground for a while. Just the idea of trying to move around felt like an almost exhausting endeavor to the young demigod. It was just so tempting to keep his eyes closed and pretend like nothing was wrong, that he could just lie on the ground and imagine that he hadn't just spent three days fighting Kronos and his army and that he was actually back home with Mom, waiting for her to finish cooking her blue pancakes.

…great, now he was hungry too.

But slowly and steadily the pain started to fade, finally allowing Percy to move without feeling like his insides were being put through a blender. The demigod pried his eyes open to take in his surroundings, but he paused at the sight before him. He honestly hadn't been sure what he had been expecting to see, but it certainly wasn't what was before him.

It looked like it had once been a forest, but it wasn't like any forest he had seen before. Roots twisted in the ground so much that there was more wood that dirt to walk on. Trees trunks so thick that they could have blotted out the sky shot up out of the ground, their branches extending from their main bodies like arms seeking hugs. Some were packed so closely together it was almost impossible to tell where one ended and the next one began.

All the colors were off though, in a way that he couldn't quite describe, like someone had taken the first handful of crayons that they could find to color everything in without any rhyme or reason. Pink and orange leaves dotted the ground like a second layer from where they had fallen off the trees, trunks, and branches shifting between more colors than he thought wood was capable of. It would have been quite the sight if they weren't all dead.

Percy pulled himself off the ground as he took in his surroundings. What might have once been a mighty forest was now nothing more than a dying corpse, clinging to what little life it still had left. What trees that he could see were still alive were few and far between, and they seemed to be short for time. A foul blackness was seeping from plant to plant, a sickness that seemed to drain them dry. Percy actually managed to catch sight of one tree literally shriveling up to a fraction of its size in mere seconds as the blackness wrapped around it like coils of a snake.

Looking up, Percy could see that instead of the blue that he was used to, the sky was, in fact, crimson red, as if something was making it bleed. Clouds rolled above in the sky as dark as the darkest of nights, but they didn't look or feel like thunderstorms. Whatever they were they set his teeth on edge.

In fact, this entire place set him on edge.

It was as if the air itself was thick with -no, scratch that, the air itself _was_ filled with malice and hate. It was a present literal force, weighing down on him with a near tangible weight. There was something sick and wrong about this place, he could feel it in his bones. His body was screaming at him to get out of here and get as far away from whatever was causing _this_ as he possibly could.

And quite frankly, Percy was tempted to oblige his body. But as he twisted around he couldn't find a single path that didn't lead down the same route. As far as he could see there was nothing but death for miles and miles. A perverting blackness that gripped at the landscape like a set of withering hands, taking everything into its grasp with a greedy edge. But as his gaze searched the horizon, something caught his attention. A glint of gold half hidden under a pile or recently disturbed leaves.

Percy felt a pang in his chest as he brushed the pile aside to see Annabeth's knife reflecting his gaze. He reached down to pick it up, hesitating for a moment with the fear that it was nothing more than an illusion before his hand wrapped around the grip of the blade. Despite the fact that the ground was cold the blade still felt warm to the touch, and Percy could see a few flecks of gold ichor still coating it from where he had stabbed Kro-

Percy jolted with reflexive fear, instinctively reaching for Riptide in his pocket. The blade was there was it always was, its pen disguise unfolding to its three-foot sword form as he scanned the area around him. The fear that Kronos had managed to survive the fall as he had squeezed his heart like a vice. He had lost too much for that snake of a deity to slip away again.

But as his gaze swept over the landscape again he allowed himself to relax a bit. There was no sign of the Titan in any direction. In fact, there was really no sign of anything. The forest was deader than dead, nothing more than an empty husk. Percy capped Riptide again but still kept a wary eye on his surroundings. There was something about this place that was making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

Percy swallowed as he considered his options. Staying in place would see him dead as he slowly succumbed to hunger and thirst, but there was really no way to tell which direction he needed to walk in. Which meant that if he started walking in the wrong direction he would die. Was that his fate, to finally defeat Kronos only to die to dehydration?

And wouldn't that be the greatest of ironies that he of all people died from dehydration?

"AUGH!" Percy screamed as anger rolled over his form, swinging his bare fist against the closest tree. The otherworldly wood crumbled under his fist, punching a hole straight through the tree. The skin on his knuckles broke a little, the faintest trace of blood running down his fingers. He could recognize that he had apparently lost the Curse in the fall, but he was too angry to care about something as trivial as that. The demigod breathed heavily as he let the anger take its course, leaning against the rotting tree for support. He could feel it creak and crack, the dead husk groaning under his grip, but he didn't care about that.

Part of him just wanted everything to be _over._ He was tired of being the Fate's plaything, tired of having to deal with a death sentence hanging over his head because of some prophecy that had been made decades before he was born. With a great shuddering breath, Percy pulled himself back up, pushing back that miasma of negativity. Getting angry wasn't going to help him survive, even if it did feel good to just let it all out.

"Alright Wisegirl, which way…" Percy started to ask, only to trail off the realization that Annabeth wasn't with him. He had known of course, but the actual realization hadn't quite sunk in. But now that he had actually processed the information, Percy could feel a great big gaping pit swallow up any positive emotion that he might have once been feeling.

Now he just felt empty.

"Get a grip," Percy muttered to himself, clutching Annabeth's blade like a lifeline. The world seemed to become more oppressive without her by his side, she and Grover had always made the challenges that he had faced seem, well not easier but less impossible. After being such ever-present companions, not having them felt strange and alien and _wrong._

 _I'll find you guys. I promise,_ Percy thought to himself as he started walking. He didn't even know which direction he was going in without a Sun in the sky to guide him, but he knew by the end of this he would get back to Annabeth and Grover the rest of Camp Half-Blood. He would find them.

And Hades help anything that tried to get in his way.

* * *

Percy wasn't sure how long he had been traveling. There was nothing that he could use to reliably mark the passage of time aside from his own thoughts. For all he knew it could have been five hours for five minutes. The endless sky hadn't changed at all, the red suffocating glow still bearing down on him as the landscape became more and more littered with dead trees and plants.

Percy paused as he took his next step, the ground crunching underneath his foot. His hand started to discreetly reach down for Riptide as he scanned his surroundings. He could feel something watching him, hiding in the corner of his vision. As far as he could see there was still nothing but dead life for miles, but Percy knew to trust his instincts, and right now they were warning him that he wasn't alone.

That was when he heard the crashing and screams.

The demigod's head whipped around to the direction the noise was coming from, pulling out Riptide and extending it to its full length. The three-foot blade glowed slightly, and Percy felt a little better with the familiar weight in his hand. His eyes scanned the area the noise had come from, but a particularly thick grove of decaying trees blocked his vision. Then they started to shudder, snapping sounds echoing outwards from them. Percy could feel his body tense up as he prepared to defend himself from whatever monstrosity came tearing out from the trees…

…Only for a butterfly with a face to rip itself out from between the trees.

 _What?_

But as Percy got a better look at it, it was clear that it wasn't a butterfly. It had a pair of butterfly-like wings, but that was really the only similarity that it had. Its body was long and streamlined like someone had taken a snake and stapled a pair of wings on it. It looked like something that someone would come up with from an LSD trip, but he had to admit that it wasn't the strangest thing that he had seen. His hand twitched for a brief moment, his reflexes screaming to defend himself, but he managed to hold them back as he caught sight of the expression of pure unaltered _terror_ on the creature's vaguely human face. It was the kind of fear that couldn't be faked, the kind that pushed down your rational mind and left only panic and madness in its wake.

Percy kept an eye on the creature, but let it come closer to him, passing around him and cowering behind his back. He could feel its body press up against his skin, shuddering as it wailed in panic and terror. He could feel its warmth beat against his back in a mirror of a heartbeat as the crashing noise grew louder, and more strange creatures pulled themselves out from the forest.

Percy kept his guard up, but they all had the same expression of terror adorning their faces, those that had faces anyway. It was telling how afraid they were of whatever they were running from that they were willing to seek shelter behind a complete stranger, trusting that he wouldn't be worse than whatever it was they feared. The miniature stampede of small creature came to a stop, and one more pulled itself out from the trees, this one different from all the others.

Unlike its companions, this ethereally glowing being was shaped like a human, but instead of flesh and sinews, they were covered in bark and leaves. Percy was suddenly reminded of the dryads, and his heart felt a pang of hope that Juniper hadn't been among their number to die during the battle.

The dryad-like being had a human face, one that was contorted in a toxic mixture of fear and pain. Her right arm was clutched to her chest, off-color gasses rolling from it. There was a limp in her step, but she didn't look like she was giving up. There was fire and steel in her eyes, her mouth pressed into a thin line. Her gaze roamed over Percy for a brief moment, no doubt taking in the odd sight of so many colorful creatures using him as a human shield. She looked like she was about to say something when a great crash echoed out from the forest, and Percy could see trees being tossed to the side. He could feel his passengers flinch in terror even as the dryad closed the distance between the two of them.

 _"_ Please…help," she begged, so weak that he could barely hear her. Percy had no time to respond to her pleading before something massive tore its way out of the trees. The demigod could feel his hackles rise at the sight of the monstrosity and his monster killing instincts were kicked into overdrive. Whatever this thing was, it felt sick and _twisted._

"What do we have here, more prey to devour, and a _mortal_ at that," it hissed with a discordant chuckle. A pair of claws that looked large enough to tear him in two snapped together as its fangs made a strange clicking noise that for some reason reminded Percy of a dolphin. Four sharp talons smashed aside trees as its tail raised itself into the air, but instead of ending with a stinger it had another mouth attached to it, hissing and snapping at open air as if it had a mind of its own.

"Rejoice mortal, for you shall be devoured by—" the monster started to taunt, but Percy was not in the mood for this. In the last seventy-two hours, he had lost dozens of his friends, had to fight two Titans and fell into a gaping black pit to keep the world from ending. He had no idea where he was or what was going on, but he was _not_ going to deal with this right now.

 _Hello, appropriate target._

Percy was already moving as the monster spoke, Riptide swinging through the air as Annabeth's knife rested in his other hand. The creature made no move to dodge the attack, and Percy slammed his blade into one of the monster's claws. He could feel the creature's armored carapace collapse around the point of impact, folding in on itself as the blade sliced straight through. Percy blinked for a second as instead of falling to the ground as a detached limb, it took a mist-like quality and floated away. But while Percy was confused as to why the limb didn't explode into gold dust, the monster had a very different reaction.

Panic.

"WHAT? HOW?" It screamed, its voice reaching an inhuman pitch. Fear flashed through its multiple insect eyes as if the concept of being stabbed by a blade and coming out with a wound was an alien idea to it. Percy jumped back as it started to thrash in the throes of its panic, its last clawed appendage swinging out with wild abandon to hold him off. But a low rumbling reached Percy's ears and the ground in front of the monster exploded as vines shot up to latch onto the claw. Within seconds the limb was wrapped like a demented Christmas present, trapping it in place. Percy didn't hesitate for a single moment as he shot forward, slicing the other claw so that it could join the first in oblivion.

"AAUUGH!" The creature screamed again, skittering as far back as its legs could take it. It held up its stumps as it was trying to hold him off, its tail trying to pull itself as far back as it could. Whatever rage and killing intent it might have once posed had evaporated alongside its claws, leaving behind a broken coward in its wake. Even its second mouth seemed to recognize the sudden reversal in rolls, shuddering and shivering as it pressed itself against the creature's carapace, doing its best to minimize its profile.

Percy moved in for the kill, Riptide swinging through the air, threatening to impale the monster in the skull. But before the blow could strike, the monster's form twisted like a bad child's drawing and it weaved itself out of the way. Percy cut a few tendrils as the mist like substance tried to escape his reach, but he wasn't able to make a finishing blow. A few seconds later the scorpion monster reformed a few dozen feet away, its wounds still visible, along with some new marks dotting its hide. Its insectoid eyes took one last look at him before turning tail and running away as fast as it could.

 _Huh,_ Percy thought, somewhat surprised that the monster didn't try to attack him instead. It wasn't like monsters lacked self-preservation instincts, but their ability to reform made them more likely to push an attack rather than fall back. After all, what point was there to fear being killed when you all you had to do was wait a little longer?

Percy kept an eye on it until it passed out from his gaze, too deep into the woods for him to keep track of it. The demigod sighed and let some of the tension melt from his shoulders.

Percy turned back towards the dryad lookalike, the other beings huddling around her as she stood in front of them. A few vines twisted around her, and she had her uninjured arm held out as if to keep them shielded, but her she looked exhausted. Her stony-faced expression was just barely holding on as she tried to hide the pain that she was in. His eyes traveled down to the vines that had pushed out from underneath the ground before glancing back down at the now limp ones that had held the monster's claw in place. Percy capped Riptide and lowered Annabeth's knife.

"So, I've been having a crappy bad day, how about you?"

* * *

"I wish to thank you for what you did. If you had not intervened I do not believe that I would be here right now," the plant woman said as they settled around the fire. Percy couldn't actually tell if it was night or not like she had claimed, but the sky did seem darker than it had been before. But time had seemed to do wonders for the plant woman's complexion, having taken on what he assumed was a healthier shade of green for her. Her injured arm still looked pretty bad, with ugly veins of purple running up and down the limb like an infection. She had wrapped it with vines and branches at some point and would occasionally run her free hand over it with a slight glow, but it still looked pretty bad overall.

The others, spirits as he had learned, had taken up to huddling around the woman like how he had seen puppies huddle around their mother. They pushed themselves into every crevasse that they could find, doing their best to be as close to her as they possibly could. She didn't seem to mind, instead offering several of the smaller ones places on her shoulders to rest. Though Percy did catch her flinching in pain every time one of them settled on the shoulder of her injured arm. "May I have your name so that I may thank you properly?"

"Perseus Jackson, but you can call me Percy," he said, leaning back against a dead tree to get a bit more comfortable. He could feel the dead bark give way a little bit, cracking a snapping under his weight as it settled. The woman's free fist tightened a little bit, a flash of pain crossing her face so quickly that he almost thought that he imagined it. But before he could open his mouth to apologize for ruining the tree even more, because what else would a plant spirit be concerned about, she opened her mouth.

"Well then Percy, you have my deepest thanks for saving us from that vile insect. Know that from now until the end of days you will have the gratitude of Nei," she said, a small but genuine smile crossing her verdant face. The smile certainly did wonders for her appearance though, making her look less like a middle age woman and more along the lines of his age.

"Yeah! You made him run away!" One of the smaller spirits pipped up with a squeaky voice. Before Percy could even think about responding to the remark, virtually every other spirit that had wrapped themselves around Nei spoke up at once, their voices blurring together so much he couldn't tell where one question began and the next one ended.

"…that was so co…"

"…did you see…"

"…how do you tha…"

"…maybe he could…"

"…awesome!"

"Younglings," Nei butt it, softly but firmly. Velvet layered over steel, a voice that was used to being obeyed. The spirits started to quiet down a bit, some of them turning toward Nei while others still bounced up and down from where they sat, their questions no doubt burning in the back of their minds. They reminded him of Nico before he broke his promise and shattered the boy.

 _I'm sorry Nico._ The young, or old depending on who you were asking, son of Hades had practically gift wrapped him a chance of victory over Kronos and he _still_ managed to find a way to screw it up.

"Though I must admit that I am a bit curious about your myself," Nei added as the last of the spirits settled down. The deftness with which she calmed them down reminded Percy so much of his own mother is almost physically hurt. Had she survived the rest of the battle? Did she know that he was okay, or when she failed to see a blue flag flying over the building did she assume the worst, that she had lost her son for the second time?

 _Sorry Mom._

"Would you be willing to tell us how a mortal such as yourself managed to physically enter the Spirit World?" She asked, her eyes brimming with such hope that it almost burned to look at. Percy could already tell that the answer that he had for her question wasn't going to be the one that he wanted and that he was going to crush someone's dreams and hopes.

Again.

 _Nice job Percy._

"I don't know," Percy admitted, and he watched as whatever hope that she had fall from her face, dashed as quickly as a sandcastle against the tide. Percy decided that she deserved a bit more of an elaborate answer. "I was fighting this…guy," though calling Kronos 'guy' felt like severely underselling the magnitude of malice that he had represented, "and we fell into a void. I…I don't know how I got from there to here, or even how I survived."

It was somewhat terrifying to acknowledge the fact that for all that he knew, he should have died in that endless void. He had no way of knowing if his survival was nothing more than a luck or if by being close to Kronos had someone saved him. Percy wasn't usually bothered with not knowing things, but this was something that was going to be on his mind for a while.

A moment of silence passed over the flickering campfire, a desolate expression crossing Nei's face. It was so raw that it instantly made Percy regret giving her that answer, even though there had been no other answer to give. The plant spirit let out a shuddering breath, seemingly collecting herself as her mouth thinned into a flat line.

"Apologizes, I had just hoped that…" Nei trailed off, staring at the spirits that surrounded her with a forlorn expression. It was the kind of look that Percy had seen on some of the younger demigods, the ones who knew that something bad was going on but just couldn't understand _what_ or _why_. "…I had hoped that we would be able to use the same passage as you had to enter the Mortal Realm."

"Why?" Percy asked, tilting his head a little. He could understand wanting to get away from the rampaging monster but traveling to a whole other world seemed like a bit of an overreaction. Like leveling a building to get rid of a rat infestation.

Though in his defense, the smallest of their number had been about four feet long, so he liked to think he was pretty justified in that reaction. Granted, the owner hadn't really liked that, but it was his fault that his store had been filthy enough to attract monster rats in the first place.

Nei's head shot up and an expression of shock and confusion crossed her features before realization settled in. "Ah, of course, you would not know," she muttered as if the thought that he wasn't informed on what was happening had just hit her.

"What? Are you trying to get away from that scorpion thing?" Percy asked.

"No. If escaping Chelamma had been my goal I would not have had to expend such efforts. He was merely last of many corrupted spirits that have been after us. They have sought to capture us for their master so that we too will join their ranks," Nei said, and one of the spirits broke out crying. The others didn't look too far behind, huddling against Nei was best as they could.

Percy could feel his hands tighten at the thought of someone taking them and turning them into monsters. Hadn't Kronos done that with the demigods? Brainwashing them into serving him, into believing that he would fix everything that was wrong with the world. A cold thought swept through Percy's spine.

"He…he wasn't like you guys, right?" He asked, hoping that he hadn't just maimed someone who was as just as much a victim as these spirits were. Not that that would have stopped him from defending himself, but he would have used a little more restraint. To his relief Nei shook her head, dispelling his fear.

"No, Chelamma gave himself into the darkness willingly, unfortunately, others were not so willing," Nei murmured, her gaze downcast.

"Whose doing this?" Percy asked, cold rage flowing through his veins. Nei paused, looking around as if she expected something to jump out of the shadows at a moment's notice. She leaned in as far as she could, Percy joining her to bridge the gap. When she spoke, it was little less than a whisper, but the name she said echoed through his skull as if she had blasted it into his ear with a megaphone.

"Vaatu."

The sky darkened, the crimson red turning almost black and casting them in darkness. The trees around them seemed to shrivel up even more than they had been before. The small fire before them was snuffed out in an instant as if it was trying to escape the notice of the name. The shadows grew darker, more oppressive, creeping across the landscape like clawed hands, ready to tighten around them all. Percy could feel a chill of fear travel down his spine and something squeezed his heart like a vice.

A beat passed, and then another. The oppressive atmosphere didn't let up completely, but it eased up enough that talking didn't feel like it would result in an imminent death. Percy looked at Nei, who had lost some of her green shine and the spirits that huddled up around her, trying to stave off the darkness. Percy pulled himself back a little bit and stared straight into Nei's eyes.

"Tell me everything."

* * *

Chelamma skittered across the ground as fast as his legs could take him, moving so quickly that his limbs were nothing more than indistinct blurs of color. Despite trying to convince himself that this was all just a tactical retreat, that he would be back later for revenge, he couldn't help but shake the terror that drove itself into his skull like a set of blades.

It was an utterly laughable situation without any perspective. The mere concept that a spirit such as himself would feel from a lowly mortal was something that was so far out of his understanding of the world it was nearly incomprehensible. And not even a mortal that could bend, which might have excused such a failure in his own eyes. At least then he had some reason as to why a mortal would be able to interfere with his work, however insignificant. But this mortal hadn't used any bending and had still managed to drive him off. If anyone had ever suggested that idea to him before this very day, he would have devoured them whole.

But that was before the pain.

He could still remember the searing, _burning_ sensation as that golden blade sliced through his shell and tore apart him at the very core of his being. What should have passed right through him had actually managed to hurt him, had actually managed to wound him. His claws had yet to reform despite his best efforts. He had tried every trick that he knew in reshaping one's form, but every time he came to his claws, they stubbornly refused to rebuild themselves, nothing more than errant stubs to wave around in the air.

As he traveled across the plains his fear started to transform into anger. There was no excuse as to why that mortal had thought themselves worthy enough to harm a spirit like himself. They were but flesh and blood, errant specks in the branches of the Tree of Time – he was _eternal._ That mortal should have debased himself at the thought of being worthy enough of his attention to be killed. The boiling feeling of rage welled up inside him, causing him to grow larger, stretching himself to his limits.

Chelamma paid little attention to the unfortunate spirits in his path, trampling across them without a second glance. He was too busy stewing in his own range, contemplating what revenge he would be able to be wrought upon the mortal that had dared harm him.

Surely the lord would see this as important? Mortals should not have the power to harm spirits, not in this fashion. Their bending might disrupt their bodies for a time, but they couldn't hurt spirits, they _couldn't_. A cold chill swept over the spirit at the thought of what might have happened if he hadn't chosen to retreat if he had tried to stay and fight. Would he have passed into the eternal abyss?

As the plains turned to swamp, Chelamma started to get some second thoughts. The pain had been terrifying yes, but the lord was far _worse._ Compared to the lord he was insignificant, and his pain even less so. The conviction that he had felt with this course of action started to dribble away as he neared his destination, uncertainty whispering in his thoughts.

It was one thing to have experienced such an event himself, but without the mortal and his blade, what proof did he have? Even as an eyewitness he barely believed what had happened himself, how could he possibly convince the lord of what had occurred? He could easily imagine the lord dismissing his claims and punishing him for his failure to curb the forest spirit.

 _I could turn around and pretend this never happened,_ he considered, the insidious thought easing its way into his head. But even if he stopped and turned around right this second, he was already well within the lord's territory. Faceless spirits bounded up and down the pillars of rock as he crossed them himself, using his larger reach to bridge the gaps between them. He did his best to ignore them as they scampered around like rabid animals, unable to function without the personality that had been stolen from them.

The Face-Stealer no doubt already sensed him with how thoroughly his power had embedded itself into the landscape over the millennia, subverting it to his own will. If he turned around and fled Lord Koh would doubtless be able to recognize him and track him down, and then the retribution for his failure would be even worse.

No, best to just go through with this. It wasn't as if Lord Koh wasn't a completely unreasonable spirit. So long as he refused to show any emotion during the proceedings he would touch him, at least not directly. One of his lackeys might pick up the slack, but Chelamma would rather take on one of them than a Great Spirit.

But despite his rationalizations, that didn't stop Chelamma from hesitating as he neared the mouth of Lord Koh's lair. The dead tree stood before him, a thin mist wrapping around it. The opening into his lord's lair was a dark and cavernous thing, filling the spirit with dread. The Face-Stealer was not a spirit to be trifled with, even when one was working for him. Even the thrice-cursed _Avatar_ knew better than to engage with him.

But he had come this far, and even discounting all of his other rationalizations, without help he would never be able to hunt again.

Chelamma pushed himself to move forward despite the screaming in the back of his skull warning him that this was a bad idea, allowing the shadows to engulf him as he entered the hole of the ancient tree. The spirit schooled his insectoid features as best he could, doing his best to hide his conflicting feelings. He would be fine, he just had to avoid showing the slightest trace of emotion and he would make it through this.

 _"What do we have here?"_

Chelamma paused, using all the willpower that he had to keep himself from flinching at the sound of his lord's voice. The words and tone didn't quite match up with the sound of the voice itself, as if the speaker was used to talking in a different way. It might very well have given some credence to the rumors that those that the Face-Stealer took were still alive and conscious in some twisted fashion, buried underneath the weight of his power.

 _"A little hunter returning with his tail tucked between his legs."_

He did his best not to shiver, twisting around as he searched for the Great Spirit. The voice echoed off the walls, making it seem like it was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. But seeing that there was no place to direct his speech too, he chose to simply start talking and hope for the best.

"My lord, if I could explain," Chelamma managed to get out without an ounce of emotion. An outsider might have mistaken it for boredom, but all that the spirit could feel was welling panic as the sound of dozens of legs clicking against wood. A shadow passed over him, and he looked up, barely holding in a whimper at the sight of the Great Spirit hanging over him.

Too many legs to count waved in the air as he loomed over him, hanging in such a manner that it looked as if he might very well strike at a moment's notice. Koh's eye was adorned with the smirking visage of a young mortal male as he lowered himself to the ground. The eye blinked at the face was replaced with one of an older woman, her long hair having lost all of its color, her voice cracking from the weight of use.

 _"Explain? You wish to explain why a single half-dead forest spirit managed to escape you?"_ Koh asked as he circled him, closing in around him. Chelamma felt a flash of terror pass over him and for a brief moment he feared that he might lose his face, but he just barely managed to keep it from showing. From Koh's smirk, the spirit knew exactly how he felt. Chelamma tried to open his mandibles to speak, but Koh beat him to it, cutting him off with a hiss. _"Your failure in this matter is disappointing Chelamma. I had trusted you to do your duty and you failed. This will reflect poorly on me to our master, and that is not something that I appreciate."_

Chelamma could feel a sliver of dread work its way into his mind at the mention of the one above Koh. He had met that spirit once, only out of happenstance, having come to report to Koh only to find him in a deep conversation. He could still remember the clawing emptiness that he had felt when he had set eyes on the spirit he was possessing, a cold darkness that swallowed up everything in its path. If he never had to be anywhere near that spirit again then it would still be too soon. He would rather try a thousand conversations with Koh than one with _him._

 _"But fortunately for you, I am not without mercy,"_ Koh whispered as he wound around him, his face shifting to that of a howling baboon. Chelamma managed to not flinch as he brought his face in closer, the tough tone grating on his ears. _"I can understand that some failures are beyond one's own actions. So perhaps if you can explain how you failed to catch a single forest spirit, I might be able to grant you some leniency."_

Well, that was a boldfaced lie. But at the same time, he knew that it wasn't a chance that he couldn't take either. There was no way that he would be able to get out of this situation without Koh's approval, which meant he had to play along with this and hope for the best. Not the best of chances, but it was the only one he had.

"There was a mortal and he—"

 _"Do you take me for a fool?"_ Koh asked, his tone deathly flat as he reared up.

"No, my lord," he managed to get out without squeaking. "I would never believe that such a Great Spirit as yourself would be able to be deceived by one as lowly as myself."

Koh chuckled, a discordant noise that flashed between several stolen faced in rapid succession. His body twisted with amusement, pulling back again and giving Chelamma some much-needed breathing room. _"And yet you expect me to believe that mortal of all things was able to stop you in the heart of the Spirit World? The next words out of your mouth had better be that they were the Avatar if you wish me to believe this lie."_

"I do not lie my sire, and while they were not the Avatar, he _was_ able to harm me. His blade cut through my claws my lord, and I have not been able to heal them since," Chelamma protested emotionlessly, holding up his stumps for the ancient spirit to see. He could see Koh giving the limbs an eye, no doubt sensing what he felt was wrong with his body. Another mortal's face adorned the Face-Stealer's eye with a contemplative look.

 _"So, you mean to tell me that a mortal somehow managed to get inside the Spirit World, and managed to harm a spirit in such a way that they could not heal it?"_ He asked, back turned away from him. Chelamma could practically feel the disdain and disbelief rolling through the air. When put like that it did sound improbable that a mortal was able to do not one, but two impossible things to a spirit, but he held by his story.

"Yes."

 _"I see. Very well, we shall see if your story is true or not,"_ Koh said, and Chelamma felt joy and relief rise up in his form, but he kept it from showing. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

"Than you my lord. I—"

 _"Unfortunately, you will not live to see it,"_ Koh said with all the care of someone commenting on the health of a bug.

"What?" Chelamma asked, rapidly paling despite his goal to remain expressionless.

 _"You have already failed me enough, bug. Amarok, deal with this pest."_

Fear sparked throughout Chelamma's body, and he quickly turned around to make a run for the exit. But before he could take a single step forward, a pair of purple eyes glared out from the shadows, blocking his only path to freedom. A long snout emerged from the darkness, its lips pulled back into a mocking grin that revealed rows and rows of teeth. Chelamma felt his body shudder as the greatest hunter of the Spirit World pulled himself into the light.

"Don't worry little bug," the wolf spirit said with a deep-throated chuckle. "I'll keep this from being _too_ painful."

Chelamma tried to protest, to scream, to fight. But all he could do was shriek in horror as Amarok leaped forward with a roar, wrapping his massive jaws around his skull. The insectoid spirit felt one last piercing pain rip through his skull as the teeth punctured his carapace.

* * *

 _"I see you're enjoying yourself."_

Amarok pulled himself away from his still twitching meal to face his liege. The dead spirit's energy coated his brown and white fur, a feeling that he had sorely been missing recently. The thrill of the hunt just wasn't quite the same when all that was really left were the small morsels, too unfit to really even toy with. Even without a proper hunt, being able to actually rip into his prey and drag it out made all the difference.

"Forgive me for my excess, my lord, I simply wished to savor this moment over my prey," Amarok said, his snout twisting into a grin. He was one of the few spirits that were allowed to express their true feelings in front of Koh without fear of losing their faces, an honor he had earned after countless centuries of serving his lord.

 _"I understand Amarok, we all have our natures to bow to,"_ Koh replied with a chuckle of his own. _"But I fear that your work is not yet down."_

"You wish me to finish where he failed," Amarok noted, giving the cooling remains of the bug a contemptuous glare. How this fool had managed to fail in bringing down a single forest spirit outside of its place of power was beyond him.

 _"Indeed. Even if his story about a mortal being able to harm him was nothing more than a fabrication, we cannot allow this forest spirit to lead others outside of our reach. Each one that escapes furthers the risk of them being able to contact the Avatar in the Mortal World. Hunt them down and bring them here, I would like to have a…conversation with them."_

Amarok the Hungerer could feel his savage grin spread out even wider as the song of the hunt flowed through his form, his eagerness for blood bubbling to the surface. He could image the screaming as he dragged them back to his master, knowing what their fates would be but not being capable of stopping it. The Terror of the Polar Nights bent his head low in submission to his lord as he uttered his promise.

"It shall be done."

* * *

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	3. Ruminations

**Not a lot of action this chapter, but you'll get plenty of that in the next few chapters.**

 **Enjoy!**

Ruminations

Percy sat against the rotting tree, his mind a whirl of thoughts as he considered what Nei had told him.

The forest spirit was currently asleep along with the rest of her charges, dozing next to the ashes of their former campfire. Most of the younger spirits had dozed off during her explanation, apparently uninterested in what she had to say. Percy couldn't really blame, he had never been able to pay attention in history class himself. The closest he had gotten to was fighting off a giant snake that had disguised itself as a teacher.

Nei had done an admirable job of keeping herself awake even as exhausted as she had clearly been. She had offered to take the first watch, but he had refused. Out of all of them, she was the one that needed sleep the most to regain some of the strength that had been sapped by her wound. And in any event, Percy doubted that he would have been able to get any sleep without some time to run through everything that he had been told.

The more and more that Nei had told him about what was happening, the less Percy thought that he was anywhere that he knew. There was nothing in anything that she had talked about that he had recognized, and when he spoke of places like New York and Olympus she seemed just as confused. She talked about humans that could bend the elements to their will, and the Avatar, the only person in the world who could bend all four and bridge the gap between the Spirit World and the Mortal World.

It sounded like something out of a cartoon, but then again, he was the demigod son of the Greek god of the ocean that had been prophesied to either save Olympus or burn it to the ground, so it wasn't like he could cast any stones.

It was still dizzying, the amount of information that had been thrown at him, and he was fairly certain that she had been giving him a rather barebones summary of what he needed to know. Just the thought of having to retake history and world politics classes made his head spin. Percy felt a pang of emptiness bounce around in his chest. If Annabeth had been here she would have not only been able to handle the information overload but expand on it until she knew everything about anything.

Percy sighed as he tried to push those thoughts aside. Moping about her absence wasn't going to get him any closer to getting home. He needed to focus on the now and survive, then he could start looking for a way to get home. He would eventually get back to them all, that much he _did_ know.

But there was still the Hellhound in the room. And not the friendly kind like Mrs. O'Leary, but the vicious bloodthirsty kind that would try to rip your throat out without a moment of hesitation.

Vaatu.

She had spoken about him with the same hushed whisper the Olympians had of Kronos, which was a pretty good sign that whoever he was, he was pretty bad news. This idea had only solidified when Nei explained in more detail what was going on. Apparently, this Vaatu guy was supposed to be the Spirit of Chaos and Darkness that had been imprisoned for so long that most spirits couldn't even remember how long ago it had been. And given that Nei stated that she herself was well over a thousand years old that spoke volumes as to how long ago he had been sealed away.

His recent activity in the past two centuries had apparently been rather unusual, but none of the other spirits had given it much thought until the changes started to become noticeable. Well known spirits being turned dark and twisted, becoming mockeries of themselves. Malevolent entities that hadn't been seen in some time becoming for active, the Spirit World itself change to reflect the state of its inhabitants.

According to Nei, this entire area had once been a lush forest that stretched as far as the eye could see, but the few years had not been kind to it. Percy tried to imagine what it would have looked like, but all he could see around him was death and destruction. If there had once been life here, he couldn't see it.

Part of Percy just wanted to wash his hands of the whole afraid and get back to his friends. It would have been easy to. There was no reason for him to get involved in something like this, there was no prophecy that told him he needed to fight Vaatu, no rational reason to put himself in danger. He could just let this Avatar deal with the problem like they were apparently supposed to. It was _so_ tempting to just give in and run off, so he could get back to the people that were important to him. What had it been that Athena had told him?

 _"Your fatal flaw is personal loyalty, Percy. To save a friend, you would sacrifice the world."_

Percy hadn't bothered to argue with her at the time. Partially because she was the Goddess of Wisdom and probably right and the fact that she was right. Percy knew all too well what he was willing to sacrifice to save his friends. If Annabeth and Grover had rallied against the gods, then he would have been right there with them, leading the charge. His hand brushed the grey mark in his hair as he considered the good fortune that he had that he hadn't needed to actually sacrifice the world.

Though it was proving to be very tempting at the moment.

Percy felt his gaze shift over the sleeping Nei and her gaggle of spirits, unaware of the dark thoughts flowing through his head.

But as quickly as they had come Percy dismissed them. It was true that the thought of getting to his friends faster was tempting, but Nei had proven to be a friend too. He wasn't going to abandon her for the sake of convivence. Though Percy did have to wonder if this was just going to be the rest of his life, defeating one ancient evil only for another to take its place without any lasting a reward.

A plaque would be nice.

He could imagine it now, 'Percy Jackson, Vanquisher of Ancient Evils since 12'.

The thought managed to drag a short snort out of Percy as he settled down into his vigil, keeping watch until Nei woke up and took over for him, granting him a few minutes of rest that he desperately needed.

* * *

Nei watched as the mortal settled into his slumber, his muscles relaxing against the rough ground and dead bark. He was an unusual one to be sure, but she was grateful for his assistance. Had he not driven Chelamma off then it was likely she would have been defeated, and she and her charges would have been dragged off to be corrupted by the Dark One's power.

A cold shudder of terror ran up her spine.

She had seen many evils during her lifetime, but the sight of normal, peaceful spirits being corrupted by his power would haunt her for centuries to come, she was sure of it. Seeing spirits that she had trusted for centuries being twisted into monsters, becoming nothing more than creatures of destruction and madness as their very beings were torn apart and stitched into something new, something awful…there was nothing more terrifying.

Her gaze shifted back to her charges, the young spirits still asleep, and undisturbed by the emptiness that surrounded them. In some ways, she envied their naivetés, their inability to fully understand what was happening around them. None of them were developed enough to understand the magnitude of what had occurred here and the evil that it represented.

Oh, they understood that bad things were happening, but they were incapable of appreciating the full devastation wrought by the Dark One's will. Nei swallowed, averting her gaze from the twisted and consumed tree, a husk of its former glory. She may not have known these particular trees, but it still hurt to see their rotting corpse, the sheer _emptiness_ of light inside of them.

She shivered as she fended off the clawing darkness that seeped into the very bedrock of the earth. Even beyond the death of so many innocent trees, the life-giving properties of the soils had been leeched from the ground, ripped up and torn away. Nothing new would grow here, not so long as the Dark One's influence laid claim over it, and even then, it would take centuries to regrow, even if she and a dozen other forest spirits spent the rest of their existence trying to help it along.

Nei hissed as pain ran up her injured arm, the residue of Chemmela's attack still doing its best to cling to her. She could still feel it trying to twist her insides, to make her as he had been remade, but she was keeping it at bay. It had been a relatively minor wound, with only the fact that she hadn't had time to drag the dark energies out from her body the only reason that it had gotten this bad. But now they had taken root, and it would be a far longer process to remove the foul taint.

She brought up her uninjured hand over the wound and pressed her finger to one of the off-color veins that just peeked out from her makeshift cast. She hissed as she dug into form and allowing the foul powers to latch onto her untainted finger. Then with a quick tug, she ripped it out, taking a small sliver of power with it that clung to her free finger like a fishhook. Separated from the rest of its power it quickly faded into nothingness, only a foul whisper of pain to remind her of what it had been doing.

 _This is going to take forever,_ she groused as she turned her finger back to her arm. She knew that it was better than the alternative, but there was no way that she was going to get this all out of her before they needed to move. Even stopping for this rest put themselves at risk, she had no doubt that Chemmela would be seeking to take revenge on Percy the moment he regained his strength. A mortal, a mortal non-bender that that, harming a spirit in such a way that he had was not something that would be forgotten anytime soon.

Nei couldn't help but glance at said mortal as he snoozed against the corpse. She hadn't gotten his full story even though he had offered her the information after her own explanation. She herself had been too exhausted to sit through whatever his full story was while this infection dug into her arm, but she had gotten a few snippets from the questions that he had asked. While she herself had never spent much time in the Mortal World, she had known several spirits that had, and she had never heard them speak of any of the places that he asked about. Nor had she heard of any of the names that he had mentioned. Kronos, Poseidon, Zeus, they were all foreign names to her, but she could still feel the weight behind them each time he brought them up.

He was clearly important, which made Nei even more grateful for his intervention. It was all too common for those with great power to ignore the suffering of those beneath them in the pursuit of their own goals. She, of course, knew that there were exceptions, Lady Yue was proving to be quite the caring Spirit of the Moon, but she was in the minority. Too many of the ancient spirits were bound to their titles and natures, unable to view the world outside of their own perspectives. Agni was well known for his bond to honor, which wouldn't have been so bad if he didn't challenge everyone to combat that didn't fit into his concept to honor. Or even Vayu's desire for freedom that left him generally uncaring for the problems of others as detached as he was.

No, Percy's willingness to put himself in harm's way for a group of spirits that he had never met was an admirable quality, though Nei feared what that might mean for him. It was all too easy for her to imagine the Dark One manipulating him through that character trait, and for all the good that he had done for her, that blade of his was terrifying.

She had never encountered anything that could cut through a spirit like that except for another spirit, and yet here was a blade in the hands of a mortal that could do just that. Bending had allowed the humans of old to drive spirits from their homes and lands, but it had been rare for spirits to be fully dispersed into the cycle of reincarnation through their actions. She shuddered at thought of that blade in the hands of literally any other mortal.

Though perhaps she was a little biased in Percy's favor. She knew of plenty of spirits that would have been more than happy to remove the mortal from existence regardless of how kind-hearted he was. Allowing a mortal to possess _any_ power that could harm them would keep more than a few spirits up with nightmares. But Nei was willing to waive those concerns off with everything that Percy had done. The fact that he hadn't started waving his blades around and started ordering them to work for him would have been good enough for her, but he had done far more than that.

Nei wasn't sure that she would ever be able to thank Percy enough for what he had done for her, for them. She had explained to him what happened to other spirits unfortunate enough to be caught in the Dark One's web, but she hadn't gone into detail about the horror of it. He found it disgusting, as anyone with a heart should, but he didn't understand the overwhelming terror of having yourself torn apart and stitched back together into something alien, monstrous. To be turned into nothing more than a slavering beast waiting for the next kill.

She couldn't even begin to imagine what that existence must be like for the victims of the Dark One and his servants. Nei spread her aura out a little more, tightening the blanket of energy she was placing around her charges. She could feel the darkness testing her defenses, trying to find a way to get through without expanding too much power. It didn't push, not really, but instead if pressed up against her back like a set of blades, poking and prodding but doing little else. She could tell that it was just waiting for her to slip up, to make some sort of mistake and pull herself too far so it could bring her walls crashing down.

That was something she could not allow to happen.

Koh would give up all of his faces before she allowed a single one of her charges to be pulled into that darkness. She was the mother of her forest, and she would protect these young spirits with the same ferocity that she had her home.

And this time, she would _not_ fail.

* * *

 _Percy was dreaming._

 _And not just any dream, but a demigod dream._

 _Which really sucked because that probably meant he wasn't going to get a good night's sleep. No, demigod dreams tended to end in horrific realizations that something very wrong was going to happen somewhere and that it was probably going to directly affect him. Not the most calming or restful of experiences._

 _Percy took a look at his surroundings, which in all honesty made the dead forest he was snoozing in look like a lush paradise in comparison. As far as the eye could see was nothing but jagged rocks and cliffs shoot up out of the ground. They reached up into the sky as if dozens of clawed hands were trying to drag down the heavens themselves, ringing around him in an endless loop. Thunderclouds rolled overhead, occasional lighting flashing across the sky, quickly followed by roaring thunder. It reminded Percy a bit of Zeus' storms when he was angry, but his storms had never really held such a malevolent edge._

 _He could feel his teeth burning in their sockets, the back of his neck standing up on end. All of his instincts were screaming at him to get away from this place, that whatever made its home here was something that he_ could _not fight. As far as the eye could see, there wasn't a single hint of anything resembling life. In the near distance, Percy could make out a glowing sphere, like someone had taken a star and shoved it into the ground._

 _"Master, everything is proceeding as planned, the Avatar has no idea of what is occurring," a voice said, echoing through the jagged peaks. Percy turned towards the voice and found himself staring at the back of a narrow looking man as he faced a massive tree. He didn't know what it was, but he could tell that it was important. Just looking at it he could see that it was old, not so much from the sight of any wear and tear, but rather just a feeling of ancient agelessness, as if this thing had seen it all come and go. It didn't have a single leaf growing from is, but its thinnest branches looked sturdy enough to hold a locomotive. Twisted and gnarled roots dug into the ground until they become one with the earth around them._

 ** _"Good."_**

 _Percy felt a little bit of himself die on the inside at the sound of the second speaker's voice. It was deep, far to deep to be anything human or natural. He could feel a slick feeling pass over his mind as the world echoed in his ears, and his body was screaming at him to run away, to get as far away from this thing as he possibly could. But all Percy could do was stand in dumbstruck terror. His words failed him, whatever jokes he could think of to take the edge off his fear quickly dissolving away. There was no comfort, no safety blanket that he could think of._

 _"However, my brother is proving to be more of a hindrance than I had initially predicted. I will need to move the timetable up in order to secure my position as the Avatar's teacher before the Solstice ends, Master," the first voice said, apparently unconcerned by the fact that he was speaking to something whose mere_ voice _was enough to make Percy want to run and hide. "With the proper motivation, I can drive the girl from her mentor and father, but I will require a catalyst to prove my worth to her."_

 ** _"Very well. I will send Ijiraat to strike at her. He has been requesting a chance to take vengeance on the Southern Tribe for some time now, an attack by him would not be unexpected given the defilements they have made to his former land."_**

 _"An excellent idea, Master," the first speaker said, though it lacked any of the familiar sleaziness that Percy might have expected. It wasn't the tone of someone trying to butter their master up, but rather someone who honestly thought that their leader had a pretty good idea and they wanted in on it. Percy would have preferred the first tone because at least then he could count on the man being pretty cowardly. But it appeared this man was made of sterner stuff. "Such an attack would also prove useful in gathering the support of the old guard of the tribe. With their backing, I would be more than capable of obtaining chiefdom and securing the southern portal."_

 ** _"Excellent. I will allow you to deal with the details as you wish so long as you accomplish your primary goal. We cannot allow this opportunity to pass. The Avatar must…not…"_**

 _The voice trailed off, and Percy felt something very, very wrong._

 _"Master?"_

 ** _"We are being watched."_**

 _Right now, Percy was really wishing that his body would respond to his commands. The last time someone had been able to detect him while he was dreaming hadn't ended very well for him. He really wasn't tempted to make a repeat performance. But instead of pulling himself back like he wanted, Percy felt a force wrapped around him, freezing him in place. He could do nothing but watch helplessly as he was dragged long, pulled closer and closer towards the gnarled tree. The world seemed to spin around him and Percy found himself face the section of the tree that had been previously facing away from him._

 _It glowed bright red, and for a moment Percy felt the urge to comment about how it looked rather like an oversized nightlight, but the words were quickly dashed from his tongue as a wave of pure malice washed over him. He felt like he was being basked in radioactive light, all he could feel was burning pain, like a thousand fishhooks digging into his skin._

 _Whatever was trapped in the tree was too hazy and indistinct to make out, but Percy didn't need to see it to know whatever this thing was, it was bad news._

 _ **"How did you come to be here – but no, you're not really here, are you? A Spirit Walk into the heart of my territory? You are a fool."** The dark voice rumbled even as Percy was dangled in midair. The demigod had to wonder if this was what a fish felt like when it was caught on a line, begging and praying that it would be let go and completely at the mercy of its captor. In the distant corner of his mind that wasn't addled by terror, he made a not to ask one of them the next chance he got. _

_"I-I try to be consistent," Percy said, though his voice sounded faint and far away to his own ears. Like it was trying to speak to someone on the other end of a tunnel and just couldn't raise his voice high enough for them to hear._

 ** _"What are you doing here, mortal?"_ **_the voice asked with much more force than before. A low rumbled, like thunder without lighting, a voice so deep that he could_ feel _it in his bones. It was everywhere and nowhere, an omnipresent dread that hung around him, chocking and suffocating him as it dug itself in, circling like carrion birds. Percy hissed as pain washed over his body again, his insides curdling as they froze one by one._

 _"Just p-passing through," Percy managed to grunt out past the pain. His nerves felt like there were all being pressed with a hot iron._

 ** _"Amusing. But I have no interest in talking to you, mortal. Begone."_**

 _Percy's mouth twisted into a soundless scream as lighting rained down from the sky and struck his back. Pain ripped through is form and—_

* * *

"AAH!" Percy screamed in blind panic as he was forcefully thrown from his dream. Out of instinct ingrained from years of ambushes, Percy flicked Riptide open even as he rolled himself to his feet. His eyes darted around in every direction, searching for any sign of an oncoming threat. It wasn't until Nei's voice broken through the haze of his automatic reaction that he managed to wake himself up a little.

"Percy?"

The panicked demigod's eyes flashed over to Nei, and the spirit flinched for a moment when she met his gaze. The other spirits were either waking up and trying to throw off their own drowsiness or still slumbering, blissfully unaware of what was going on. Seeing that there wasn't any immediate danger, Percy managed to calm himself down a bit. His breathing became less labored and erratic, and the tenseness of his muscles started to let up a bit as he lowered his weapons. His skin was still drenched in a cold sweat, the phantom pain of whatever had happened to him in that dream raced up and down his body, but he was alive.

"I'm fine," he managed to get out as he set Riptide and Annabeth's dagger back in his pants.

"You don't look fine," Nei said with such a motherly tone that it almost hurt. Her expression was twisted with concern as she stood up, carefully moving aside the spirits that were still snoozing on her. Percy allowed her to gently grasp part of his face as she turned him towards her, giving him a look over.

"I've had worse," Percy said, waving off her concern as best as he could. He appreciated her efforts, but right now her attempts reminded him a bit more of his mother than he would have liked. His heart clenched at the fact that he still didn't know if she and Paul had managed to make it to the end of the battle okay. It startled a laugh out of him, thinking of a group of monsters cowering from mere mortals, but it was still a terrifying proposition.

 _I'm coming home, Mom._

"It was just a dream," Percy said with a slight shrug, doing his best to brush it off. He couldn't even say that was a lie, stretching the truth a bit, but defiantly not a wholehearted lie.

 _Nightmare might have been a better term though._

"It must have been some dream, you look as though you came face to face with Koh," Nei noted as she back away from him. She didn't look convinced, but she wasn't pushing for information, something he was grateful for as he tried to parse what he had learned himself. He thinned his lips, trying to consider what he needed to do with the information before turning to Nei and informing her of what he had seen in the dream. She would probably have a better idea of what they had been talking about and what could be done.

At the very least her plan wouldn't have the risk of accidentally causing a volcanic eruption and waking a monster that sent the gods running so it was better than anything he could come up with.

To her credit she didn't question the fact that he had gotten his information from a dream, though with each word her features paled a little bit, losing some of their color. She pursed her, her gaze turning towards the ground as she idly hummed in thought. "If what you say is true…then we must warn the Avatar somehow. I have heard of Ijiraat, a malevolent shapeshifter, but I doubt he could defeat the Avatar. But if what you say is true and that someone in the Mortal Plane is working for the Dark One, then they will need to be warned of this."

"Any ideas of how we're going to do that?" Percy asked, tilting his head in thought. There was the possibility of IMing the Avatar, but he didn't have any drachma, and even if he did he doubted they would work someplace where Iris wasn't. Though he paused his musings as he turned towards Nei, who had a contemplative expression on her face as she scrutinized him. "What?"

"You seem quite willing to place yourself in the center of a fight that is not your own," she noted. There wasn't any condemnation in her words, but rather curiosity and perhaps some slight disbelief, as if she couldn't imagine the idea of a mortal working for something that wasn't in their best self-interests. Percy could only shrug.

"I don't like bullies. I especially don't like assholes who think its okay to turn people into monsters so they can take over the world," Percy affirmed. He had never gotten why people used fear and terror to keep their subjects in line, that always seemed like a rather counterproductive usage of their power. They had to know that eventually people would get tired of fearing them and start hating them at some point, right? And that once you started hating someone, it was remarkably easy to convince yourself to fight against them, no matter how scary they were.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to insult you, I just…" Nei started, trailing off, her face scrunching in thought.

"Aren't used to the idea of humans not being jerks?"

"…yes," she admitted, her cheeks darkening from embarrassment.

"Its okay, I know humans can be assholes," Percy said with a shrug of his shoulders. He knew all too well that some of the worst monsters that he had ever encountered hadn't been born from the pits of Tartarus, but rather ordinary humans that lacked that little voice in their head that told them to stop. "But I'm not going to leave you high and dry."

"Thank you," Nei said after a moment, giving him a genuine smile that Percy returned with one of his own. One of the younger spirits let out a massive yawn that made Percy a bit tired just looking at it. Others were pulling themselves out from their slumber, rubbing the sleep out of their eyes or whatever equivalents they had.

"So, what's the plan?" Percy asked, turning his attention back to Nei even as the other spirits started to regain their bearings.

"We need to get as far away from here as we possibly can," Nei said, a concerned look wiping away her previous smile. Instead, her mouth thinned, an expression that Percy was familiar seeing, the same kind of look that Annabeth had when she was trying to figure out their next course of action or how to solve their latest challenge. "Chelamma has doubtless returned to his masters at this point. Even if they think little of us, they will send corrupted spirits after to try and turn us."

"So, where are heading?" Percy asked, taking a moment to glance around. There were a few odd shapes in the distance, but dead trees still dominated the landscape. Certainly, nothing that he could just point to and say 'let's go this way'.

"Our ultimate goal is to reach the Spirit Portals, but the shortest route there is through the swamps," Nei said, pointing vaguely to the left. Percy squinted and thought he could make out some mist, but he couldn't see anything that would indicate the existence of a swamp. Still, he trusted that Nei knew what she was talking about. Though it did bring up some questions.

"Didn't you say that was the area that Vaa-" Percy paused as the expression of pure terror that flashed over Nei's face as he started to articulate the bad guy's name. He was tempted to just call him you-know-who, but that brought up flashbacks of Annabeth forcing him to read through the entire Harry Potter series. He hadn't even been able to get out of it with his dyslexia excuse since she had the same.

That had not been fun.

"Isn't that the area that _he_ is in control of?" Percy finished after mentally rephrasing the question.

"Yes, but we have little choice in the matter, especially with you here," Nei said with a weary sigh, looking worn down and tired. Percy didn't know if she aged, but quite frankly she looked like she had aged by about twenty years. Her skin lost some of its color and bags ran down under her eyes and even her hair looked a bit less lively. Percy could feel a pit of guilt well up in his stomach.

"I'm sorr-"

"It's not your fault," Nei said with a wave of her hand even as the younger spirits started to chat with themselves, trying to figure out what was going on. Percy did his best to ignore them as they bounded around, though he did have to wave on off as they buzzed around his face, chattering excitedly as they asked question after question. "Even if you were not traveling along with us, we would have needed to close to the Spirit Portals."

"Why? It seems to me that walking right into the bad guy's territory is a good way to get killed," Percy pointed out. Not that that had never stopped him, but it was still worth mentioning. It felt a little odd trying to be the voice of reason after having Annabeth and Grover do it for so long. There were supposed to be the ones the drag him down from whatever crazy idea he had, not the other way around.

"Yes, but it is only there that we will be able to leave the Spirit World," Nei said, and Percy tilted his head. Seeing that she needed to explain some more the forest spirit expanded her statement. "The Mortal and Spirit Worlds are separate but connected," she said as she folded her hands on top of each other. "But certain areas are closer than others, which allows spirits of sufficient power to push through the barriers and travel between the worlds at will."

As she spoke, a vine pulled itself up from her uninjured arm and push its way through the gaps in her fingers. Percy nodded in comprehension and Nei dropped her arms away.

"But you're not sufficiently powerful enough?" Percy asked, but Nei shook her head.

"No, I am. Even with the corruption of my place of power, I still have enough strength that I would be able to push myself into the Mortal World, at a cost," Nei admitted. But as she spoke she turned her gaze down towards the children who apparently decided that their conversation wasn't that important and instead decided to start playing a game. Percy couldn't possibly say what they were playing, but it looked like it involved changing your shape. "But I would not be able to carry anyone with me on the journey, and neither they or you have enough power to it yourselves. The closer we are to the Spirit Portals, the easier it will be for me bring us across."

"Which means walking into danger," Percy reiterated. Not that he didn't have a problem with doing that himself, he did it all the time, much to the chagrin of his friends. The problem was when there were other people with him.

Other people tended to die when they followed him.

Bianca.

Zoë.

Beckendorf.

"Yes, but we have little choice in the matter," Nei said, frustration creeping into her tone as her brows furrowed. "There _are_ other locations where I could pull us through, but they are too far away for the children to travel to. And every day that we remain here is another that we risk being turned, assuming that we aren't captured by roaming dark spirits."

"Alright," Percy agreed with a nod. He would trust that Nei knew what she was talking about. If she thought that they needed to move deeper into enemy territory he would trust that it was because they needed to. "So, what's the plan?"

"Though the swamp is under the Dark One's control, there is a location within the swamp that dark spirits have not been able to penetrate. I've heard rumors that other refugees have been flocking there for some time now. Getting there would put us about halfway to the portals," Nei said as the younger spirits started to clamor over her.

"Alright," Percy said with a nod after having processed the information. It sounded risky, but it wasn't like he hadn't taken worst risks before. The most recent one being his choice to wade through a supernatural river that could have very well burned up his very soul. Compared to that, this at least seemed somewhat sensible.

"Let's do this."

* * *

Amarok's nostrils flared as he took in all the scents of the area. The smell of trees and growth came to his nose, a sign that the forest spirit had been present in the area recently. The scents of the other spirits that intertwined with hers were unremarkable, they were too young or weak to develop any characteristics or mantles of their own.

And underneath it all was the scent of a mortal.

Amarok knew mortals, particularly the breed that made their homes in the frozen wastelands. In the past, he had often enjoyed raiding their outlying villages and hunting them down for entertainment. Though they were unremarkable in physical prowess aside from bending, they did have an innate capacity for problem-solving that made them interesting foes. He hadn't really had a chance to visit his old stomping grounds in a while, not with all the work he had been doing with keeping spirits from getting out of the Spirit World.

That said, there was something odd about the mortal scent. The Wolf of Hunger could tell when a mortal was a bender, their chi had a distinct edge to it that he could smell. A certain sharpness that promised a good hunt for him. But that said, while this mortal had something in common with the waterbenders that he liked to hunt, there was something _different_ about it.

Amarok had spent millennia hunting prey from all walks of both worlds. He could recognize the musty odor of a young badgerfrog to the burning wood of an elder dragon. There was very little that he couldn't recognize from scent alone.

Which was why this scent was so infuriating!

There were some similarities to some of the older ocean spirits, but that still didn't quite fit with what he was smelling. And how a mortal could possibly have such a scent was beyond him, but it was maddening enough that he was almost tempted to just rip the mortal apart before handing him over to Koh.

"Where did they go?"

The wolf spirit curled back his lips to bare his fangs at the weakling who had dared to interrupt his train of thought. The small winged snake pulled back, an expression of panic crossing its face. It no doubt feared that he would turn around and snap it whole, ally or not. Satisfied that the uppity little morsel was dealt with, Amarok turned the full brunt of his attention back to the scents.

"They're heading towards the swamps," Amarok said, more to himself than anything else. He could tell that the spirits were trying to escape, there was a certain amount of desperation tainting their scent that made it obvious that they wanted to get as far away as possible from what was happening. It was always a thrill to know that the terror that a prey felt was because of his actions. For them to know that death followed them, nipping at their heels and that there was nothing that they could do.

It was _intoxicating._

"So, they're coming towards us?" A small rat-like spirit commented from behind him, but Amarok didn't even bother snapping at him for interrupting his train of thought. He could tell that the forest spirit was trying to reach a point that she could carry everyone to the Mortal World. That in of itself was foolish, if the weak couldn't save themselves then they were left behind and abandoned while the strong survived. Risking her own safety for those who couldn't help her was idiocy.

But what he didn't understand was why the swamp? He knew that it was theoretically the shortest path to reach the portals, but the Master had long since taken hold of it and polluted it with his own forces. the fact that she would be surrounded by plant life might have been a contributing factor, but the swamp was deeply rooted in the Master's corruption.

Despite himself, Amarok had to hold back a shiver at the thought of the Master. He had served Koh loyally for centuries, and he would continue to do so, but that still didn't stop him from feeling uneasy when talking to the Master. There was something about him that just made Amarok feel like he was a rabbitdog underneath the heel of a dragon-

 _Dragon!_

Amarok's head shot up with the realization of what lied inside the swamp, the only place that the spirit could possibly be going that she couldn't get to through any other route. The wolf didn't even bother giving his entourage orders as he bounded after the scent trail, uncaring if they kept up or fell behind, they were only cannon fodder in the end.

Besides, the more fell behind, the more he would get to devour.

But none of Amarok's thoughts were focused on that right now. All that he was concerned with was ensure that the forest spirit wasn't able to seek refuge inside the Dragon's territory. As he raced towards the swamp Amarok could feel his spirit hum with bloodlust as images of ripping into this pesky spirits swelling into his mind. Despite the fact that he was now on a time limit and failure would likely result in a fate far worse than death Amarok couldn't help but smile.

 _This is going to be_ _ **fun.**_

* * *

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	4. Prey

**Enjoy!**

Prey

If there one thing that Percy had to say about the swamp, it was that it stunk.

The noxious smells gnawed at his nostrils, worse than Smelly Gabe even after a week without a shower. There was something almost visceral about the fumes that burned at him, almost as if it was trying to physically ward him off. Like a thinking entity, it seemed to follow him with each step that he took, and every effort that had made to shield himself from it were quickly defeated. Even pulling part of his shirt over his nose and adding some water didn't seem to help, the putrid aroma permeating into every fiber of the fabric.

 _And I thought the Pegasus stables were bad,_ Percy thought, his mind flashing back to the weekends spent cleaning out the stables without powers as punishment. Even with all the respect that they gave him as their creator's son, that still didn't stop them from leaving massive piles of crap for him to clean up.

In comparison to the fumes, the rest of the obstacles were far less debilitating. The sickly green water which brushed just under his knees would have been quite difficult to navigate if he hadn't possessed his authority over water. As it was, the water sloshed off him without issue, refusing to cling to him or even get him the slightest bit damp as he trudged his way through. A quick tug on the water and he was able to do the same for Nei, but after doing it for so long he could feel a pain starting to grow in his gut, like a muscle that was being used too much. He would probably only be able to keep this up for another ten minutes or so before he needed to take a break.

 _We both might need a break,_ Percy thought, turning his attention back towards the forest spirit in front of him.

Branches and tree roots that were thicker than a city bus covered the path before them and probably would have taken them hours to circumnavigate if it hadn't been for Nei. Plants moved aside from her path with a casual wave of her hand, but when she thought that nobody was watching he could see the weariness casting a shadow on her expression. And Percy didn't miss the way that some of the roots twitched when they left her control, like a snake that was testing the waters, waiting for the right chance to strike.

Nei had said that this area had been corrupted by Vaatu's influence, did that mean that the very trees were on his side? Percy's grip around Riptide tightened a little bit at that thought, his eyes glancing around the area with new suspicion as if one of the trees might rip themselves out of the ground to strike at him.

"Are we there yet?"

Percy glanced down at the group of young spirits that here huddled up between Nei and himself. They all looked rather miserable, trudging through the swamp water with downtrodden and exhausted expressions. Even the fliers were barely keeping themselves above the water, their wings sputtering with each beat.

"No, Leena, we still have a little bit to go," Nei said without a hint of frustration. It was rather impressive how she had managed to keep herself cool and calm with the number of times that the younger spirits had asked that question. A collective groan rang out from the younger spirits with all the same petulance that a mortal kid might have.

"Why do you have a sword?" one of the spirits, who Percy was pretty sure was called Alma, asked as she perched on her shoulder with a flutter of her butterfly wings. He would have thought that trying to keep track of all their names would have been easy since they all looked different, but it wasn't.

Or maybe he just wasn't good at keeping track of names.

"I use it to protect myself from monsters," Percy said, giving her the simplest explanation that he could given the circumstances. He wasn't opposed to the idea of telling them all that he was the son of a god, but this didn't seem like a good place to have a chat that complicated. Nei apparently understood that having asked only a handful of questions, mostly to gauge how helpful he would be during the trip, but the younger spirits hadn't gotten that memo.

"What's a monster?" Alma asked, tilting her stretched out neck with a curious expression on her face.

"They're—," Percy paused as he felt the back of his hairs stand up on end, his instincts screaming at him to move. He didn't even question them as he pulled himself to the side, narrowly avoiding a reddish tendril from impaling him in the gut. Faster than most people could blink Percy's free hand lashed out towards the attack, wrapping itself around it. It felt odd and squishy in his hands, like a pickle.

Great, now he was hungry again.

The limb trembled as it tried to pull against his grip, smaller tendrils pushing out towards him, like dozens of pins. But before they could pierce his skin Percy lashed down with Riptide, slicing them from the rest of the appendage. A pained scream echoed through the treetops as the top end of the tendril fell to the ground, dissipating into smoke. The rest of it redoubled its efforts to escape his grip, thrashing with everything that it had and more, but Percy wasn't having any of it.

The Camp's tug of war games flashed through his head as he pulled on the limb with all this might and was rewarded with a startled squawk as whatever it was that was attacking him lost its footing. Percy turned around just in time to see a reddish shape slam into the murky water with a splash. It tried to move, but vines burst up out of the ground and wrapped themselves around its body, trapping it in place.

"Who sent you?" Nei's voice cut through the silence of the swamp. The spirit, which really looked more like a mass of tendrils and knots than anything else shuddered but didn't verbally answer the question. The vines surrounding it glowed a little and writhing intensified, but it still didn't answer. Nei growled, taking a step forward, just enough that she was in the corner of his eye.

Her face was virtually devoid of color, and her arms were trembling like she was trying to lift the minotaur up with her bare hands. Whatever she was doing was taking a toll on her and he didn't think she was going to be able to keep it up. But before he could voice his thoughts on the matter, the sound of branches shattered like kindling echoed through the swamp and Percy twisted his head in the direction the sound was coming from just in time to see a flash of white and brown.

The air left his lungs as he was flung to the side like a ragdoll. He did his best to roll with the blow, but everything was spinning so much that he couldn't even tell what was up and what was down. Instead, he grunted as he was slammed against a tree, the wood cracking under the weight of the impact. The branches and vines of the tree lashed out, quickly wrapping themselves around his body, pinning him down. Percy grunted as he struggled against his captor, but while the branches and vines did budge a little bit, it wasn't enough to free himself. Nor could he use either of his blades with the angle Riptide was pinned at and with Annabeth's dagger trapped around his belt loop.

A cold laughter drew his attention away from his bonds, and Percy glared at the spirit that stood in the center of the chaos. The wolf had its jaws pulled back into a facsimile of a smile, fangs glinting in the pale light like rows of steak knives. Its eyes practically glowed with malice as its gaze swept over the cowering spirits as they fled behind Nei. The forest spirit herself looked rather pale, trembling from fear of exhaustion he couldn't tell, but she didn't look like she was going to let the wolf pass without a fight. He growled as the wolf finally turned his head towards him, a curious glint flashing through his eye.

"So, you're the mortal Chelamma spoke of," he mused, casually making his way over to his pinned body even as more dark spirits slunk out from the shadows. His nostrils flared, and Percy winced as the spirit's rancid breath washed over him. It smelled like someone had taken a truck full of rotting meat and left if out in the desert for a few weeks. "You don't look like much. I wonder what you'll taste like."

Percy knew it was probably in his best interest to stay quiet while the Mrs. O'Leary sized wolf mused about devouring him, but that had never stopped him from speaking before.

"If you're going to kill me, could you do it before your bad breath does?"

The wolf blinked, looking somewhat taken back that anyone would dare to speak to him like that. But the confusion quickly washed away as his gaze narrowed, his lips curling back into a sneer while his hackles raised. He started to open his mouth, his impressively sharp teeth flashing in the dim lighting.

"Amarok!"

The wolf, now named Amarok, snapped his head to where Nei was standing. She flinched a little as he turned his gaze towards her, but her angry expression remained resolute. Even when the wolf started to move towards her, his massive shadow falling across her and her charges, she didn't back down a single inch.

"I should have known," she hissed out, her glare so intense that for a moment Percy wouldn't have been surprised if Amarok caught fire. But instead of looking angered by her defiance, the wolf only let out another amused chuckle even as he pinned the spirit who had ambushed them to the ground with his paw. The spirit writhed underneath the massive paw, but it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

"Known what, that I would choose the winning side?" He asked with an amused grin. The younger spirits squirmed under his hungry gaze, doing their best to shield themselves with Nei. Percy redoubled his efforts to pull himself free from the branches, and even though they creaked and cracked a little, they still remained firmly in place. "It was inevitable. The Master is strong, stronger than you and all the other little spirits that delude themselves into thinking that they can defy him. And the strong—"

Amarok's head snapped down with the speed of a viper. Before anyone could realize what was happening his jaws wrapped around the still pinned dark spirit, his teeth tearing through it without so much as an ounce of resistance. The spirit squealed one last time before Amarok swallowed, sending it tumbling down its throat. Caustic red fumes covered his teeth even as Nei paled and the younger spirits screamed, apparently startled by the sudden savagery.

"—devour the weak."

"And if he's so strong, then what are _you_ to him, dog breath?" Percy drawled out. He almost regretted comparing dogs to this guy, but the insult had the intended effect. Amarok's head swung towards him again, a low growl echoing through the swamp even as the other dark spirits edged away. Even the tree that was holding him shifted as if it wanted to be as far away from the slowly enraging spirit as it possibly could.

"You forget yourself _mortal,_ " Amarok hissed as he drew in close, his fangs filling up the entirety of Percy's vision. "Your kind are nothing more than useful sources of amusement for me. And while my lord wished to have a…conversation with you, that does not mean that you have to be in one piece for it."

"Get away from him!" The voice that he recognized as Alma's screeched out from behind Nei. The older spirit hissed at them to be quiet, even as Amarok glanced back at them with his burning gaze.

"I would be more concerned about yourself than the mortal, morsel. He at the very least will be granted death, you and your friends on the other hand?" He let out a deep chuckle that Percy could feel in his bones. "I hear the transformation process can be quite _trying_ for those who do not give in willingly."

"Monster," Nei hissed even as younger spirits cowered, a few of them breaking out into tears.

"You call me a monster, but I do not delude mortals into thinking they can fight spirits," Amarok barked out, shifting around to glare at the forest spirit. "I wonder, how long did it take you to mold him into what you wanted him to be? I'm sure that you made a very convincing argument as to how he would gain fame and respect from being a slayer of spirits. Did you intend on using him as a distraction, something to throw at me so you could run away while I picked him from my teeth?"

"If you think that's what happened then you're dumber than you look, and you already look pretty dumb," Percy snorted even as Amarok twisted back to him with a sneer.

"You _dare_ insult me, mortal?" Amarok hissed out even as he drew in closer, to the point that Percy could have tilted his head forward a little and brushed up against his fangs. "Are you so eager to die?"

"No," Percy merely shrugged, casually glaring down at the wolf. But as the ground started to rumble he smirked a little, doing his best to ignore the stinging sensation in his gut as he pulled on his powers even after nearly having reached his limits. "I just wanted you to stand right there." Amarok growled, a low rumble that echoed throughout the entire swamp, making even his own warriors flinch from the sound.

"What is that supposed to mea—"

The Wolf of Hunger didn't even get to finish his sentence when the ground exploded beneath his paws.

* * *

Korra was having a bad day.

 _Bad might not be the right word, terrible more like it,_ the Avatar thought as her body laid against Naga. Her Polar Bear Dog's fur felt warm and soft to the touch, the rhythmic and heavy breathing of the large animal relaxing Korra's tense muscles. But that still didn't little to curb her anger over the revelations that she had experienced today.

Not only had her uncle offered to teach her about the spiritual side of her duties as the Avatar, something that she had been hoping that she would be able to do with her lack of knowledge in that field. But instead of getting the help that she needed, her father and Tenzin refused to allow her own uncle to teach her!

Not only that, but she had found out that her father had been in on the decision to keep her at that training compound with the White Lotus for all those years when she could have been out _doing_ stuff. Didn't he know how mind-numbingly boring it had been at that place, with nothing to do but lessons and training and then more lessons?

She could have been out exploring the world years ago like Aang had, learning what she needed to know about the people that she needed to protect. She could have made a _difference_ in the world. But instead, she was locked inside a virtual fortress for over a decade. How could her own father had been okay with that?

Korra could feel the dark thread of resentment wrap itself around her heart, squeezing with each thought.

But the young woman's musings were cut short as Naga shifted, pushing Korra back on her knees to support herself. She grunted as she rubbed her eyes, ready to berate her friend and call her back to sleep when her low growl filled the room. It struck Korra almost as if it was a physical thing, and she looked up to see her friend glaring at the door, fangs bared, and claws outstretched.

"What is it, girl?" Korra asked as she pulled herself up. Naga didn't even bother turning around to face her, instead pushing her way out of the cloth door. Korra followed her, hissing a little as the cold air struck her exposed skin. She would be fine, it would take more and a little snow to keep a waterbenders down, much less the Avatar, but that didn't mean that she had to like leaving the comforting warmth of her cabin to the chill of a polar night.

"BARK!"

"Naga!" Korra hissed reaching up to pull on her friend's collar, "You'll wake everyone up."

But instead of listening to her like she had expected, the Polar Bear Dog shrugged her off and returned to barking at the storm. Korra's eyes searched for anything that might have set her friend off, but the combination of the moonless night and the small storm made it impossible to see outside of the camp. If there was something out there she couldn't…

Wait, what was that?

Korra's focus zeroed in on a pair of twinkling orbs piercing through the bank of fog. The Avatar felt her muscles tense as she prepared to unleash an attack on anything foolish enough to attack her when a small fluffy creature popped its way out of the inky darkness.

"Ha," Korra said, turning to her friend, "That's what you were scared off?"

The small foxrabbit blinked at the two of them with an uncomprehending look. Honestly, Korra found its expression rather adorable, but it wasn't something that she wanted to have to deal with right now. She just wanted to get back inside and get warmed back up.

But instead of calming down Naga continued to growl her hackles rising as she positioned herself between the two of them. Korra could only quirk an eyebrow at her friend's strange behavior. Foxrabbits were hardly the most threatening animal and this one looked like it would fit under Naga's paw. Why was she acting so wei—

 _"Defiler."_

"What?" Korra asked, whipping her head around. There wasn't anyone to match to the voice that she had heard, only the lights of the emptying fairground.

 _"Defiler,"_ the voice said again, whipping through the air with the chill of the coldest polar night. Korra could practically feel the malice laced into the speech, but she still couldn't find anyone that might have been speaking. It sounded as if they were right next to her, but that could have merely been the wind carrying the voice, but that still didn't explain…

 _"Defiler,"_ the voice hissed, and Korra felt her eyes widen as they landed on the otherwise innocuous foxrabbit. Or rather, what would have been a rather innocuous foxrabbit if it didn't have a rather insane smile stretched across its features. There was an all too human spark of hate in its black beady eyes which Korra had found cute a few seconds ago, but now could only shudder in revulsion at the sight.

"Korra!"

Korra turned to see her father pulling himself out of his tent, a worried expression crossing his face. Despite the seriousness of the situation, Korra couldn't help but scowl, the spark of anger that had been diminishing reigniting into a small fire. She could take care of herself, why couldn't he see that!

Korra opened her mouth to give him a piece of her mind when an expression of pure terror crossed his face, looking towards something behind her. She could hear Naga's low growl turn into a whimper in an instant and a pit of dread grew where her stomach had been as she felt a wave of anger and malice pass over her like a cold headwind. The young Avatar slowly turned around, nearly freezing at the sight of what had once been a foxrabbit.

Half a dozen mouths of varying species fixed her with far too savage grins as they rose up to tower above her. When they opened they all spoke at once, delivering a single word that sent tingles of fear down her spine.

 _"Defiler!"_

* * *

Korra felt more than saw the creature move as it plowed forward, clouds of snow and dirt billowing up behind it. She didn't even have time to consider acting before Naga rushed forward, her friend's fear of the unnatural creature giving way to the powerful protective instincts of her kind as she moved to protect the member of her pack. The sight of a Polar Bear Dog's snarling maw was enough to make most creatures think twice about their next move.

The monster plowed through her like she was an overgrown pup.

"Naga!" Korra cried out as her friend was tossed aside by a misshapen arm. The white beast slammed into a building so hard that the wood cracked and buckled underneath her immense weight and she slid to the ground with a whimper.

More out of instinct than cognit thought Korra rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding joining her friend on the ground. She could feel the cold breath of the monster brush by her as its jaws tried to reach out, but it had too much momentum in a single direction to turn so quickly. It gave Korra the time she needed to put some distance between herself and the monster and get a good look at her opponent.

What had once been an innocent looking rabbitfox now would have towered over Naga had she been standing. Now it stood as a patchwork of creatures like someone had stitched together a bunch of animals to see how hideous of a monster they could make. She could recognize the hind legs of a Buffalo Deer and the front of a Leopard Seal, but the stinger that hung from the beast's back was alien to her.

But it was hardly as strange a sight as the creature's face. Instead of settling on one, it seemed that it had chosen to take a dozen different animals and blend them all together into half a dozen mouths. Korra almost gagged at the sight, only her training keeping her from spewing chunks all over the ground.

The monster's eyes were so bright that they almost appeared to be glowing crimson through the fog, but the main pair of eyes that were attached to a crocodilian-like snout were a dark purple that sent chills down the Avatar's spine. The monster spat and hissed at her, but it seemed to recognize that it had lost the element of surprise maybe she could—

"Korra!" Her father's voice cut through her thoughts and she cursed as the beast's attention snapped away from her and towards her father. But before she could berate him and warn him to get out of the way a pillar of ice shot up from the ground, knocking the creature back with an unearthly howl.

"Korra," her father said, grabbing her by the shoulder to look her in the eyes, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Korra said with a mild scowl. She could see the concern in her father's eyes, but that only incensed her feelings against him even more. He knew she was the Avatar, she could take care of herself without him looking over her shoulder. Her father's brows furrowed, and he opened her mouth to speak.

"Korra I—"

The two water tribe members were cut off as something slammed into them and sent them flying. Korra could feel and see the world spinning around her before she finally crashed into an ice bank, sliding to the ground with a groan. Pain traveled up her spine from the point of impact, but she could still pull herself up. Through the fog of the storm, she could see her father lying in the snow, struggling to pull himself up. Korra felt her heart skip a beat as the monster zeroed in on him, maws open wide and displaying far too many teeth for any single mouth to possess.

Korra felt her rage bubbling to the surface and sparks flew out of her hand and the snow bank started to melt under the sheer heat of the conflagration she unleashed. A torrent of fire slammed into the creature, knocking it back with a scream. The Avatar watched as the flames punched straight through the monster's body, ripping it apart. But the savage smile that had spread across her lips quickly faded as the monster literally pulled itself back together, tendrils of purplish ethereal energy wrapping around its dislocated parts like Spider Wasp webs and pulling it all back together.

The monster roared again, its unworldly howl sending shivers up her spine, but it was quickly cut off as a slab of stone rose up from the ground to slam into its face just as another burst of flame scorched its back. Korra turned around to see that Bolin and Mako had apparently been awoken from their slumber by the racket, and she could see Tenzin not far behind. Korra felt another pang of frustration at the appearance of her air bending teacher, but the beast's roar drew her attention back towards the fight. But despite the creature's blood-curdling growl, it didn't look to eager to push forward just yet.

"So, uh, nice wildlife you got here," Bolin said with a shaky smile as he and Mako took up positions beside her. Without any conscious effort on her part she took up formation with them, the instincts drilled in from their time as a probending team taking over. His eyes betrayed his fear, but frankly, Korra couldn't blame him, this thing was creeping her out too. "It's very uh…toothy."

"It's not an animal," Korra said, eyes focused on the creature as it paced around, keeping its distance but looking for any sign of weakness. It did remind her of some of the artic predators that roamed the wastelands, but she could feel _something_ off about it. A prickling on the back of her neck that was warning her that whatever this thing was, it wasn't made of flesh and bones. She could feel that certainly sing in her blood. "It's—"

"Spirit," Tenzin said as he approached them, placing himself between the two groups. Korra felt another spike of irritation toward her teacher at the interruption. He couldn't let her have this, could he? He just _had_ to be the one to know everything and never give her a chance to prove herself like past Avatars. She was always going to be Korra the coddled, wasn't she?

 _"It was Tenzin and your father that kept you secluded at the South Pole."_

Her uncle's words whispered through her mind again, a comforting chorus in the sea of anger and uncertainty that she was experiencing. How was it that her uncle who she had barely interacted with until these last few days had more faith in her than her father and mentor?

"Spirit, please tell us what we have done to anger you," Tenzin said as he slowly approached the monster, hands outstretched in a placating manner. The beast snarled and growled, but it didn't make a move to attack him.

Yet.

"Is he crazy?" Mako hissed out, still holding his bending stance. She could feel the tension in her boyfriend and his brother, both of them just waiting for the right moment to strike. But with Tenzin in the way, their options were severely limited. They couldn't let loose a direct strike without the risk of catching him in the crossfire.

"I don't know, just get ready," Korra said back, holding her own firebending stance. Her aqua colored eyes tracked her mentor as he slowly but surely closed the distance between himself and the snarling spirit.

"Spirt please, what has been done to anger you so?" Tenzin asked again, an almost pleading note entering his voice.

"Uh, I don't really think its in a talking moo—" Bolin started to say.

 _"Defilers."_

"—or I could be completely wrong," the earthbender hastily corrected.

 _"You have taken what is ours,"_ the spirit said, its unearthly voice echoing through the storm. Its mouth spoke in unison, each one with a voice of its own, sending shivers up Korra's spine. She could feel the hate and rage in the spirits' voice as if it was a physical thing, wrapping across all of them.

"Please, respectable spirit, what have we taken from you, and how may with right this wrong?" Tenzin asked, taking a step forward towards the spirit, apparently emboldened by his success. The spirit still remained motionless, but Korra could still see the way it was tensing, readying to pounce at a moment's notice.

"Tenzin—" She hissed out, only to be quickly shushed by her air-bending mentor.

 _"Not now Korra,"_ he half whispered back to her, not even glancing away from the beast to chide her. Korra couldn't exactly fault him for that, she wouldn't want to take her eyes off that thing either, but that didn't stop the anger from bubbling up at the dismissal of her warning. She ground her teeth against each other, ignoring the concerned glances from her boyfriend.

 _"This was our land, our world. But you and your kind took it from us, ripped it away into your own greedy hands and drove us away. You take and break, but now more! Now, now we will take it back."_

Tenzin didn't even have a second to try any further diplomacy with the spirit before one of its limbs shot out. The airbenders was tossed to the side with almost contemptuous ease, falling off the cliff and into a snowbank below with a thud. Korra and her friends responded in almost perfect unison thanks to their time as a Pro-Bending team. The spirit howled as it was thrown off the cliff by the combined might of two jets of flames and a wave of solid rock. It slammed into the fair below, but instead of trying to climb back up to engage them, it smashed its way through the nearest festival stand, shattering the wood into splinters.

 _Koh take it,_ Korra cursed as she shot off the cliff with a jump, a vortex of air forming underneath her to keep her from splattering herself on the ground. The festival might have been closed for the night, but there were still guards and workers still there. If the spirit continued its rampage there was no telling who might get hurt.

Satisfied that she was close enough to the ground to avoid hurting herself Korra let a bolt of pressurized air loose behind her just as she brought her arms above her head. The Avatar shot towards the ground and slammed her fists into the snow-covered earth. The spirit barely had time to realize what was happening before a slab of stone shot out from beneath it, but whatever she could say about the spirit it was _fast._

Instead of being flung into the air like she had expected it to, the spirit used its claws to cling to the rock, holding on for just long enough to get a good height to leap off of. Before Korra could realize what was happening she had a very large and angry looking spirit hurdling towards her face.

Korra dove down into the well of power that she knew she possessed, grabbing onto that now familiar experience as her eyes started to glow bright white. She could feel the power of every previous Avatar coursing through her veins, she could feel their knowledge and experience become one with her own she could –

 _-orra!_

 _What?_ Korra thought, the confusion at the sound of a voice whispering between her ears shocking her out of the Avatar State. The flame that she had been gathering burst out towards the falling spirit, but without the power of her previous lives to back it up, it was far less lackluster than she had been expecting. The spirit still screamed as its outer layers were charred and boiled, but it pushed through, its maw emerging from the flames like something straight out of an old Water Tribe horror story. Hundreds of teeth filled its main mouth, a gaping pit of flesh and bone all the way down into its throat.

The stuff of nightmares.

For a split second, Korra forgot that she was the Avatar as her heart pounded against her chest and blood rushed to her ears. She could feel the roar of the spirit in her bones, but she couldn't move. Her body refused to respond to her as if she was being bloodbended by Amon again, and all Korra could do was watch in horror as the monster's mouth drew in so close that she could feel its rancid breath beat down onto her face, colder than the ice beneath her hands.

But the beast's killing blow was interrupted as tendrils of water rose up from the ground. They were thin things, barely larger than her wrist and hardly enough to do any appreciable damage against the spirit, but instead of shrugging through it like it had with every other attack the spirit stopped. With an almost sluggish movement, it turned to face the bender responsible for the attack, and Korra joined it. Hope welled up in her heart as the sight of her uncle who was currently in the process of some sort of very complicated water bending. He moved with a grace of a gentle tide, and Korra could practically see the tension and killing intent melting from the spirit.

As she pulled herself to her feet, she watched as the tendrils of water continued to rise from the ground, not touching the spirit, but surrounding it as if it was being caged. Despite the fact that the spirit had been pretty intent on killing everything in its path, it seemed to be relaxing as the tendrils grew even more. Her uncle's movements became more complicated, Korra having long lost understanding of what he was doing, most of the movements didn't seem to be corresponding with what was happening with the water, but there was something just so soothing about it that she couldn't help but know he was doing so much more than what she could see.

The spirit straightened up onto its hind legs, and Korra watched as the misshaped features that it had been wearing receded into nothingness as the two tendrils of water glowed bright yellow. Within seconds what had once been a horrifying monstrosity was now a relatively indistinct blob of blue energy. There were some humanoid features with its legs and gangly arms, but it was still too off-putting to refer to it as human. The only other features were a pair of glowing purple eyes, and despite herself, Korra felt a shiver of trepidation at the sight of them, but she couldn't tell why. It was as if the uneasy thoughts had emerged into her head fully formed, but she couldn't pin down from where.

"Go in peace, spirit," her uncle's calm voice cut through the haze of her thoughts. The spirit that had been intent on murdering them a scant few seconds ago now calmly walked towards the empty abyss of the polar planes. With a few more seconds it faded from view, as is it hadn't even been there before. Only splinted buildings and bruises remained as proof of its rampage.

"H-how did you do that?" Korra asked. Her uncle had calmed down the spirit when Tenzin had failed and had saved who knows how many lives in the process. Her uncle smiled at her as if he was proud at her curiosity. It certainly gave her a better feeling that Tenzin's constant degrading of her exploring her Avatar powers.

"I've have spent a lifetime studying the ways of the spirits. I doubt that there is a single human on this world that knows and respects them as much as I do," Unalaq said as he approached her. "It is still my wish that I could share this knowledge with you. If you had known how to calm the spirit, then this conflict might have been avoided entirely."

Korra _really_ wanted to say yes. After years of being told that she didn't know enough about the spiritual component of being the Avatar, here was someone that was willing to teach her everything that she needed to know. Her uncle wouldn't baby or coddle her like Tenzin and her father did.

 _He will give you all you want._

"Korra!"

The young Avatar turned to see her father and Tenzin running up to them, Mako and Bolin following close behind. Her father had a pained look on his face and was clutching his stomach, and Tenzin had a pretty nasty bruise developing on the side of his forehead, but they otherwise looked fine. But her relief at their survival was quickly dashed away when they started talking to Unalaq about how he couldn't be the one to teach her and how it had to be _them_ and that she wasn't _ready_.

 _They don't trust your judgment._

"Only I can give Korra the training that she needs," her uncle said, bringing her attention back towards the conversation. Her father and Tenzin startled before they both settled in varying expressions of irritation.

"I told you, that isn't going to happen," her father said, practically growling at his own brother who wanted nothing more than to help her. She couldn't get why he didn't see that this was the best way for her to grow as the Avatar. This would _help_ her, couldn't he see that?

 _They hold you back, confine you in body and spirit._

"How about what _I_ want?" Korra asked with a glare, pushing herself between the two groups. It sounded somewhat childish, but she was tired of being treated like a fool as if she couldn't make her own choices in life. This was something that she needed to know, and her uncle had already shown more knowledge of it than Tenzin ever had. _He_ hadn't been the one to calm the spirit down had he? "Unalaq is the only one that's shown me what I need to learn!"

"Korra—" Tenzin started, holding out his hand to rest it on her shoulder, to calm her down and comfort her.

 _He thinks you a fool, a child._

She wasn't having any of it. She brushed off the airbender and glared into his eyes, bringing forth all of her anger into her next words to make sure that he understood what she was saying.

"I think it's time I got a new teacher."

* * *

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